title: [Productive social activities in mothers of intellectually disabled children moderate the relationship between caregiver burden and self-rated health].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recently, the length of time for which intellectually disabled children receive homecare has increased; hence, the mothers caring for these intellectually disabled children at home are being exposed to increasingly heavy caregiver burden. Previous studies have reported that negative psychological states, including caregiver burden, influence self-rated health status; however, when elderly people engaged in productive social activities, they experienced heightened positive psychological states. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate whether mothers' participation in productive social activities influenced the relationship between caregiver burden and self-rated health status.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a cross-sectional study using a questionnaire that included items on self-rated health, the modified Japanese version of the Zarit Caregiver Burden Interview, productive social activities, and various confounding variables. We sent the questionnaires to 270 mothers belonging to patient and family advocacy groups. We then compared the self-rated health and caregiver burden between a group of mothers involved in productive social activities and a group not involved in such activities. The relationships between self-rated health, caregiver burden, and productive social activities were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post-hoc testing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We obtained 120 valid responses. Mothers with greater burden had worse self-rated health than the other group (r=-0.305). According to the ANOVA results, the self-rated health of mothers involved in productive social activities did not significantly differ between caregiver burden groups (mild burden group: 3.4 vs. severe burden group: 3.12; F=1.3, P=.253), whereas the self-rated health of mothers without productive social activities showed a significant difference between caregiver burden groups (mild burden group: 3.4 vs. severe burden group: 2.7; F=5.6, P=.017).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mothers with greater burden had worse self-rated health. However, in mothers who were engaged in productive social activities, self-rated health did not differ between the mild burden and severe burden groups. Therefore, productive social activities can favorably moderate the relationship between caregiver burden and self-rated health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Sawa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yatsugi
authors.forename: Yoshimi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzukamo
authors.forename: Sinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Izumi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability; D008875:Middle Aged; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D058992:Social Participation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires